


Everyone's Waiting

by J (j_writes)



Category: Sports Night
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-01
Updated: 2011-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-22 01:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_writes/pseuds/J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He can do this, he knows he can, which is why he's grinning while Casey stresses.  Well, that, and it annoys Casey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everyone's Waiting

**Author's Note:**

> written for SN100's "rewind" challenge.

**a coat of white primer**

He's never had a job that has made him want to work extra hours, come in Saturdays and nights, spend his free time thinking about it. But now, Sunday afternoon in the summer when his friends are at cookouts, or watching the game, he's here.

 _It's just a summer internship,_ he told his family. _It's not a career._ But it is, and they know it.

He goes down to buy a soda from the machine, and one of the junior reporters is in his office, Kyle, or Casey, something like that. He looks up as Dan passes, and he smiles.

 

 **dancing for me**

"We're going for a drink after work," says Casey. "You should come along."

He does, and they both try to pretend that he belongs there. He dances with Sophie from marketing, and Casey watches, lips wrapped around his beer bottle in a way that shouldn't be sexy, but is.

No one says anything, but Dan knows when he's not welcome somewhere. None of the other interns were invited, and he can feel the questioning stares. He leaves early, alone.

Casey follows him to the street. "I'm sorry," he says, and Dan shrugs. "Yeah," he agrees, leaving the _me too_ unspoken.

 

 **hold my hand**

He can't stop smiling the night they go on the air.

Casey's nervous, and he shouldn't be, because he's been doing this for years. But he's nervous for Dan, which would be sweet if it wasn't so infuriating.

He can do this, he knows he can, which is why he's grinning while Casey stresses. Well, that, and it annoys Casey.

Casey relaxes when the cameras roll, and that's when Dan tenses up. But Casey throws it off to him with his on-air smile, the one that melts Dan every time, and he grins back because, yeah, he can do this.

 

 **time flies**

By the time they reach New York, Casey has a kid and a wife, and Dan has the same furniture he bought when he moved out of his parents' house.

When they get off the air, Casey goes home to kiss his child and make love to his wife, and Dan goes out. He wakes up most mornings beside a nameless girl, sometimes a guy. He's a minor celebrity, after all, and even if he wasn't, he's pretty good looking, so it's not hard for him to get laid.

He's sick of it, really, but he can't see any alternative.

 

 **eat a peach**

He drags Casey and Charlie to a street fair because they're in New York now, and they have to experience these things. Dan fills a bag with fruit from a vendor while Charlie watches a couple of guys making music on trashcan lids.

"Dad, can I get drums?" he asks, and Casey replies "definitely not" while Dan mentally updates his Christmas list.

"Why did you buy that?" Casey asks as they continue. "You know you're not going to eat it."

"Now is the time to try something new, my friend," Dan tells him, and grins as Casey shakes his head.

 

 **rainbow of her reasons**

Dan's already brewing coffee when Casey knocks on his door.

"A dating plan," he says without preamble, and Dan just holds the door open for him. "Coffee?" he asks as Casey flops onto the couch.

Casey shakes his head. "You have any…" he looks down at his empty beer bottle, perplexed, then holds it out for Dan to see.

"I have coffee," he says, and Casey shrugs, which he takes for assent. Casey's passed out on the couch when Dan gets back, head curled up on his arm. Dan covers him up and drinks the coffee instead, watching him sleep.

 

 **the silence**

He wakes to find Casey in his bed, curling up behind him. "I'm sorry I'm such a wreck," he says in a whisper. "I'm sorry you always have to take care of me. I'm—" Dan rolls over and cuts him off, pressing a finger to Casey's lips. Casey swallows, loud in the stillness, and Dan shakes his head, his eyes saying _don't be_ and _you do it for me_.

When Casey's arms pull Dan tighter against him, the hot press of their lips against each other says _you know why I do it, why I always have, always will._

 

 **singing for our lives**

For some reason Dan is unclear on at the moment, they let Natalie drag them out for karaoke. As a result, Dana and Natalie are onstage mangling some godawful 80s song, while Jeremy sits in a corner with Elliot, pretending he doesn't know either of them.

Kim had dragged Casey off to dance, then realized he can't, so now he's collapsing into a chair next to Dan with a grin on his face. "I love you, you know," he says, and Dan smiles.

"I know," he says, and rests his head on Casey's shoulder to make the room stop spinning.

 

 **ecotone**

He's somewhere in that undefined space between sleep and waking when he feels Casey's hands on him. He clings to unconsciousness, not wanting to wake just yet, trying to remain in that shadowy space where there is no sight, no sound, only the whispering touch of Casey's skin against his.

He can't stay for long, though, because his fingers tingle with the need to feel Casey under them, his head wants to roll back against the pillows, letting Casey's lips mark a trail from his ear down his throat to his collarbone.

His eyes open, and he forgets sleep altogether.

 

 **all alone**

"You've got to not do these out of town assignments anymore, Casey. I'm dying here. You know who they got to cover you?"

"Bobbi?" Casey guesses.

"Are you kidding me? Would I be complaining? It's some _kid_ , Casey. Fresh out of…Albuquerque or somewhere, and he can't talk without tripping over himself or me, and…he's just a nightmare. You have to come home. Right now."

"I want to," he says, and something in his voice tells Dan they're not talking about the kid from Albuquerque anymore.

"Yeah," he agrees, and that one word sends worlds of meaning across the phone line.

 

 **static**

The lights go out before the show, and while Dana panics, Dan and Casey sit in their office and watch the lightning flash over the city.

Dan sits on the floor, leaning back against Casey's legs, and Casey's hands rest on his shoulders, moving, pressing out the tension from his muscles. He closes his eyes and tips his head back against Casey's knees, and he can still see the flashes against his eyelids.

They're still sitting like that when the lights come back on, and for the first time, Dan finds that he doesn't want to go on the air.

 

 **everyone's waiting**

"It's time," Dan says, and Casey stops adjusting his tie needlessly.

"Is it?" he asks, as if he didn't know, and Dan smiles because he's just as nervous as he'd been on their first show together.

"You're going to like retirement," he says, and Casey smiles back. "Come on. They just called five minutes."

As they pause at the edge of the set, Casey wraps his arms around Dan and kisses him, in front of the crew, and the cameras, and everyone.

Dan's still grinning when the cameras roll for the last time. "This is Dan Rydell alongside Casey McCall…"


End file.
